A truly enchanting festival - Ganesh Chaturti

It is only when there is a festival round the corner that I think about the festivities in India and start missing home. Other wise, I am contended to be away from the chaotic happenings in India.

 I have nostalgic memories of Ganesh /Pillayar Chaturti from my childhood days in Madras. A day before Ganesh Chaturti, my sister Lakshmi and myself used to accompany my father to the market and get our little Ganesha home. Only small sized Ganesha idols made out of wet clay would be available. In fact, the road side vendors used to make Ganesha idols right in front of our eyes by pressing wet clay on to the Ganesha mould. He would insert two red-black beads for eyes. My dad would also get a small paper umbrella for our Ganesha and we used to look longingly at others who bought beautiful umbrellas made out of colourful threads.

Back then I remember arguing with my father,” Dad, can’t we get the colourful and polished idols like they do in Bombay.” On retrospect, I feel the wet clay Ganesha is more eco-friendly than the colourful ones. Even before the Ganesha Pooja , Luxs and me would argue as to who would get to use the paper umbrella after the immersion - ‘visargan’


In Madras, Ganesh Chaturthi used to be a private family celebration and so on the day of the festival, we used to have a pooja for Ganesha, My mother used to make lots of sweet and savoury modakams (Khozhakkatais) for Ganesha. Hats off to her patience, for Luxs and myself never really helped her. But given a chance, we were willing to gobble even 108 modakams each. The best part of the festival was getting to taste modakams from all our near and dear ones homes. Luxs and myself would fight for the savoury modakams and leave the sweet ones for others. The day after Ganesh Chaturti, we would throw the clay idol into the well and continue fighting over the small paper umbrella.


The colourful Ganesha idols and the beautiful umbrellas I buy now and modakams I make can’t match up to the ones I enjoyed as a little girl. These festivals always evoke my memories of the simple pleasures I enjoyed as a kid.

Anikesh Joined the Bandwagon

Most of the times, it is Athuli who comes up with this rib-tickling one liners and rejoinders. Anikesh is contended to the silent onlooker.

For a change, recently  Anikesh has come up with some hilarious response that I thought of blogging about it as well.
It was last Monday evening. He had just returned  from school. I asked him "Anikesh, How was your IT paper? Hope you have performed well"
Pat comes the reply from him " Mom, IT paper was very easy that even you would get everything right".  I was speechless for a minute.  Then I started laughing at his casual remark.
I told him " Anikesh, you are telling this to me when you are just in 6th standard. I don't know what would be your comments when you are doing your higher studies in some prestigious university."

Little later I narrated this matter to Raghu and he was so thrilled by Anikesh's remark that he went and hugged him even while he was having his dinner.
"Anikesh, well done my boy. Without actually meaning it, you have given a black eye to your mom"

That night, Athuli wanted me to  read  "Vikram And Betal" story  to her. Anikesh told me " Mom. I will also listen to this story for  I know all the answers to Betal's questions."
When I was about to start reading, Athuli tried to read on her own. I got carried away by her enthusiasm to read on her own that I was busy teaching her ways to blend words easily.
Anikesh interrupted and said " Mom, Why don't you  postpone your phonics lesson for a later time and   start reading the story now."  Encouraged by Raghu's feedback Anikesh is also coming up tongue-in- cheek remarks.

Well,its good for me for it adds to the liveliness of the family,  

Negotiations of Athuli!

Athuli, my 5 year old daughter is obsessed with food and her love for food is an open secret. But the extend to which she would bargain to get her favourite food shocked me. My hubby, Raghu recently came back from India with loads of sweets like kaju katli, Mysore pa etc. As usual, she wanted to have the lion’s share. She always thinks that Raghu is her rival in food related issues and so the very thought that she would have to share the sweets with him, gave her jitters.

 So Athuli went on a rampage and had 6 kaju katlis and 2 Mysore Pas within a span of 5 hours. Repeated warnings from my side fell on deaf ears and as expected she was down with stomach pain and vomiting, thanks to her over eating. When I took her to task for her bad behaviour, she promised me 'Mom, From now on, I will not touch any sweets". I thought to myself that she would stick to her resolution for atleast a week.

Within 24 hours,  Athuli's stomach pain had subsided and she was back to her full form. She came back to me and appealed for something to eat. This was just after she has had her dinner. I asked her to elaborate as to what she wanted to eat and pat came the reply ‘only 1 kaju katli’. I was numb for a second to even react. Then I tried reminding her about her resolve  to keep away from sweets. She gave a once over to me and said ‘OK then, atleast give me half’ . It looked as if she was doing a great favour to me by reducing her demands.

This incident reiterated my view that Athuli is the natural entertainer of our family.